Dominguez Didn’t Get Degree, Official Says

A San Jose State official said Tuesday that there is no record of supervisorial candidate Francisco Dominguez receiving a bachelor’s degree, despite statements that he earned one from the university in 1984.

Dominguez, 38, has said he graduated from San Jose with a degree in political science.

But Marilyn Radisch, director of records and registration at the Cal State campus, said there’s no evidence that he completed his degree. Records show that he was enrolled from 1979 to 1991 and that he applied for graduation. But she said a degree was never conferred.

Dominguez, an Oxnard Elementary School District trustee and executive director of a Latino advocacy group, said he was surprised by the revelation.

He said he believed that he had earned his degree and even took part in graduation ceremonies in 1984 as part of the university’s “Chicano Commencement.”

He said he made arrangements Tuesday to meet with Radisch next week at San Jose State to clear up the discrepancy.

“I thought I had completed all of the necessary paperwork,” said Dominguez, who is challenging incumbent Supervisor John K. Flynn in the March 7 election. “I tried to provide information that I thought was accurate.”

Dominguez said he started at the university in 1979 and completed his course work by 1984. Upon returning to the campus in 1991 to pick up a copy of his transcripts, he learned that he was two courses short of his degree.

He completed those courses and left the campus believing that he had finished his degree.

In speaking with Radisch on Tuesday, Dominguez said he still doesn’t know where the problem lies. University officials plan to re-create his course records to figure it out.